


The untalked about complexity of Elle's Arc

by sergioprentiss



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Suicide, Meta, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-13 21:31:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16900182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sergioprentiss/pseuds/sergioprentiss
Summary: Some meta I wrote on my tumblr a long time ago that i want to back up, talking about the context of Elle's arc through the first and second seasons of Criminal Minds. This is not intended to be anti-Gideon, in fact it's more my personal view that he was deeply failed by those around him, but it also will not be a nice read for Gideon fans. Some definite anti-Patinkin content, though.Not formally written, much swearing and iffy grammar as i do not have time to edit it.





	The untalked about complexity of Elle's Arc

**Author's Note:**

> I'm only really posting here as an archive due to turbulent times at tumblr, this isn't formally written out as i frankly never intended to post it elsewhere and do not currently have the time to edit it into something more formal, but i've grown fond of the bare bones of this, so i'm saving it here as well for my own reference. 
> 
> Anyway; Elle, Gideon (and the team), and why Elle’s arc is more complex than we normally discuss.

Elle, Gideon and the team and why Elle’s arc is more complex than we normally discuss. 

Normally we as a fandom don’t discuss the little things in this arc, and they’re actually really important. I think there’s a bigger picture here that we don’t normally go into, because from the show I watched i find it perfectly understandable that nobody on the team properly reaches out to Elle (as bad as it is, i find it textually evident and explainable). It’s all in the show, except to see it you shouldn’t look at Elle, you need to look at Gideon (and to a lesser degree, Hotch). 

I think it’s sometimes underestimated exactly to what degree Gideon’s actions fucked Elle over, and the worst part is none of it was on purpose, Elle was fucked over by Gideon because Gideon was suffering just like she was, and he was suffering all along. From the moment he shows up in extreme aggressor, he is already a broken man. The Gideon Hotch respected, admired and loved is no longer here, the man we meet in flashbacks during Nelson’s Sparrow is no longer here. Flashback baby Gideon is the only time in this show we ever get to see Jason Gideon a whole man, and boy could you tell the difference. 

By his introduction, Gideon’s mistake and the malice of one man cost 6 agents their lives. This, understandably, has had an utterly profound effect on him, he is broken and frankly, who wouldn’t be? It is important to note, that when Gideon is called in to help on this case in the pilot from his classroom in the academy, Hotch is under strict instructions to monitor him and his behaviour to make sure he is psychologically sound and safe to be in the field. It is equally important to acknowledge that Hotch doesn’t do it. 

Morgan questions Hotch on this, Hotch silences him. Hotch is not looking out for Gideon in the exact same way nobody looks out for Elle. Hotch believes the best thing for Gideon is, apparently, to be back on a team working in the BAU to the point where he’s willing to be shady on the facts to achieve it. Gideon wants back in, so Hotch takes that as to be what’s best for him (note, Elle is allowed back in because she wants to be back, even though it’s really not the best thing for her, it’s repeated behaviour in Hotch). Sometimes what we want is not what we need, an this is, sadly, ignored. 

Gideon’s new place on the team is as a senior agent, yes, but really, anybody watching the show knows he’s in charge. Hotch may be the one to deal with the politics of the team and be the unit chief, but Gideon is the man you go to if you want to talk about the profiling. In the later seasons, the profiling in the team is a group effort, none of them is portrayed as being much better at it than any of the others, it’s also said that they profile people as a group because it is more accurate to do so, it’s safer, people can challenge theories and add to them in turn. But back in seasons one and two, Gideon is the one treated as if his knowledge is superior. He’s always the wise one with the answer, he’s placed himself in the guise of a mentor, benevolent, helpful, knowledgeable, but in the end still a teacher. His opinions on a matter are the final line, challenging them is dissidence, teacher knows best. Teacher practically invented this science. (Important note, Rossi does not do this and Rossi is as much a founder and profiler as Gideon, yet he does not fall into this trap). 

The wise mentor role is the ideal place to be for a man who does not want to be questioned. Gidoen doesn’t want his mental state evaluated, and he, after all he’s been through, trusts his own control on a situation more than anything else, he can have control over his own deeds, he is the one he trusts. This is inherently dangerous in so many ways. 

He does not stop to get second opinions and can get tunnel vision. In Broken Mirror, he deliberately antagonizes an unsub holding a young woman, he does not listen to anybody’s criticism. The fact that that girl didn’t die was frankly plain luck. He could not be sure, not even slightly, that his antagonistic actions wouldn’t make the unsub snap and hurt her, yet he did it anyway, not even stopping to think that he might be mistaken, or that something might go wrong. Hotch is not interested in controlling his team member (it’s his job to do so) seemingly because he, too, believes Gideon’s the most qualified to know best, simultaneously failing at his own job and not viewing himself or the rest of his team with high enough regard. 

The only reason nobody calls Gideon on this episode is because he was lucky enough to be right, really, he had no right to endanger the woman’s life that way, but it happens to work out okay so he escapes criticism, and his behaviour as ‘i know best’ is affirmed, both to himself and the team members that doubted him. “The team disagreed, but i knew better. I can take risks and get away with it. Hotch will not call me out.” would have been the message Gideon was left with. 

The whole reason Elle gets shot is because he repeats the pattern from broken Mirror that he was never called on. He deliberately antagonises the unsub, so sure that it would be inconsequential that his shock that it wasn’t is palpable. Tunnel Vision. I should note, that i feel Gideon’s behaviour here is an effect of what must be his own PTSD, he’s so focused on trying to catch the bad guys to atone for his past that he’s prone to stop considering peoples well being. In short, Gideon’s problematic behavioural patterns exist only because he indicated that his own issues should be ignored and swept under the rug, and they were. Hotch swept them under the rug, the team fell in line. 

Gideon is as much a victim of not getting the help needed as Elle was, and the team’s unwillingness to help Gideon because of the fact that he wouldn’t like it (and may even get removed as being potentially dangerous) is a standard set. It is bad, it is messed up. 

The second Gideon realises what has happened to Elle, he physically, viscerally reacts to excuse himself from blame ‘it cannot possibly be my fault’ ‘i could not have known this would happen’ etc etc. By the time Elle’s life is out of danger, he’s already absolved himself of any and all blame, content to let Hotch tear into Anderson because he didn’t keep watch over elle. (Hotch is also kind of deflecting here, interestingly enough, he picks somebody to blame but not the obvious target, he picks somebody who could potentially have stopped Elle from being hurt, but never could have prevented the fisher king from being in her house, Hotch still never questions the teacher). 

Elle is, obviously, highly traumatised by all this. She’s suffering and it’s plain to see. But the thing is, the team is used to this. They see it in Gideon. It’s also incorrect to say that nobody on the team looks out for Elle, JJ and Reid look out for her, the problem is, Jason ‘ i know best’ Gideon and Aaron ‘Jason knows best’ Hotchner don’t agree. 

JJ is visibly uncomfortable with the idea of elle taking part in the case in Aftermath, but hey, she’s not a profiler, right? She is dismissed, twice. Reid himself goes to check on Elle in her room because he knows she’s not right but he doesn’t understand and it doesn’t help, ironically, later in season 2 he will understand but it will be too late. Neither of them attempt to do anything drastic because it’s not their place to question Hotch or Gideon. 

In the end, Elle reacts so very badly to the situation she was placed in, killing the man. Her feelings and trauma had been ignored, a circumstance that happened because Gideon and Hotch set a precedent to doing so. Elle, instead of getting somebody hurt like Gideon does, hurts somebody else. 

To me, the idea that the team didn’t do anything makes perfect sense. By this point Morgan had been mostly shut down by both Hotch and Gideon, JJ’s instinctual discomfort at the idea of elle taking part in this is totally ignored and Reid’s method of helping was to offer support, Reid would never openly challenge Gideon -his mentor and teacher- he didn’t think it was his place. 

The whole situation created a perfect storm and i think Hotch plays far more of a part in it than people ever consider. Gideon’s pattern of ignoring trauma because he thinks it works ok for him (it doesn’t, but if he acknowledged that he’d have to blame himself for getting Elle shot) continues! He eggs on Hankel in revelations, orders Garcia to do something that literally results in Reid’s death!. He didn’t even think it might cause a reaction! It’s more repeated behaviour. And his first reaction, yet again, is to lock himself away and assure himself it wasn’t his fault, he is frantic and panicked and it is obvious he would not manage to carry on if he took any more weight onto his conscience. 

(To be clear, i'm not offering judgement as to whether knowingly removing the video stream from the internet was a good or bad idea or worth the risks, merely that he did not even for a second consider that there could be negative consequences at all)

More repeated behaviour, he ignores Reid’s obvious trauma. In that vein, the team also ignores Reid’s trauma. This time we have another variable, though; 

Emily Prentiss.

I am convinced all of the above is deliberate because of this character. Emily is a genuine foil for Jason Gideon, she is everything he never wanted to see on that team and the writers chose to put her there. Emily questions Gideon from the get go in Lessons Learned and is visibly surprised when she works out that that’s not a thing that’s done, Emily is practically wired to check people are okay and see to their problems, Emily does not take his bullshit. Emily does not look to him as a mentor and she doesn’t have rose coloured glasses because of it, Emily doesn’t respect Hotch enough yet to care about pissing him off by addressing it. Gideon only speaks to Reid about his trauma after he’s called on not doing so by emily, his character’s foil. Emily forced his hand. Emily is the exact thing that Gideon needed and therefore did not want. A person who was good at her job, caring and above all, not in the habit of taking bullshit. 

By the time Gideon gets to Reid, he’s already gone looking for what he needed elsewhere, and Gideon takes the credit for helping him. But the fact stands, Emily forced his hand. Emily was not content to watch Reid suffer, Emily’s reaction to Reid scapegoating her was to show concern for him and to talk to the person whom she would have logically seen as an ideal (as in, not officially the boss so not obligated to rat Reid out and also somebody Reid greatly respected) and WOW did Gideon react badly to it. She broke the taboo and spoke about trauma. 

I actually also blame Mandy for destroying up this arc, btw. Though, in the hastily written ‘doubt’ it should be noted that A) Gideon gets 2 people killed B) Hotch is suspended for it, and he should be!! People get annoyed at that but honestly he was lucky that was all he got. He didn’t control his agent and two people died. More repeated behaviour. This all ended up a hasty mess in the show and it’s entirely Mandy’s fault, but it’s still present in the narrative. Originally they were going to have Gideon kill himself after causing the deaths of the girl and the unsub, which, honestly, i feel is something he would have done had he suddenly realised exactly what he’d caused in the past 2 years. His trauma was based upon causing 6 deaths, his rash unchecked behaviour, which no matter what the team thought, was NOT kind to let him do, caused even more death. If he suddenly realised this, i have no problem believing he’d resort to suicide because Gideon was above all a good man, and he could not have lived with it, and that is the tragedy of his character. 

Elle’s trauma was left unchecked because Gideon’s was. Gideon’s trauma was left unchecked out of misguided niceness. Would it have been nice to shade Gideon from the truth? Yes, but it was dangerous, and it was not kind. Their dedication to being nice to him left him causing devastation. They were cruel. They were cruel to him and they were cruel to Elle and Reid and they mistook being nice to him for the same as being kind and they are two very different things. Being nice is shading somebody from pain, which they did, but in the long run, it would have been kinder to confront him earlier and stop him from digging the hole deeper. 

anyway this is rambling, but i stand by that this entire arc is about the perils of not addressing trauma, it is entirely deliberate. It did not start with Elle, Elle happened because it started with Gideon. The team did not intervene because they’d been told subtly that not intervening was the correct action and that behaviour was enforced frequently, up until Emily, the one not sold on Gideon’s bullshit nor affected by the socialization in the team, she arrived and was a counterpoint to it. 

The whole first 2 seasons are a upsetting mess of Gideon’s trauma and the team’s misguided attempts at niceness hurting him even more. I think, maybe, in seasons to come that would have involved Gideon, they would have realised that Emily’s approach was the correct one, the one where you tell people they’re ‘not alone’ and prove it by being there for them no matter what, but we never got that, and the arc is not really concluded.

**Author's Note:**

> Personally, I am far more of a fan of the middle era episodes of criminal minds, but the writing of the first few seasons is unparalleled by anything else it has done, and i feel like the complexity of the first couple of season's story on personal traumas is often swept under a rug under a banner of 'Elle deserved better' or, more worryingly, 'Elle is a massive bitch', and yes, she absolutely deserved better, but it wasn't a shallow character exit, it had layers and layers of depth that I think are thematically worth discussing.


End file.
